Guest post by Jonathan A. Gallant

An Inside Higher Education article on “Critical Studies” announced another triumph of this modern academic approach to socially constructed categories:  “For instance, critical childhood studies investigates how childhood is socially constructed, understood and experienced cross-culturally and trans-historically.  It challenges the notion that childhood is a natural and universal stage of life...”  

  Permit me to announce the new, related approach of Critical Mortality Studies.  This field will interrogate the social construction of death, challenging the notion that those who are assigned to the category of “deceased” are any different from you, me, or the Associate Dean for DEI.  They are just on their own position along the spectrum of vitality, and should therefore be … Read the rest

Meanwhile in Pennsylvania…

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE ASSAULT AT PENNBROOK SO FAR:

– The boy identifies as a girl named "Melanie."

– The boy had been permitted to use the female restrooms at the school.

– The boy had only recently been transferred into the school where the assault took place.

– The boy…

— REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) April 20, 2024

– The boy maintained a “hit list” of girls to assault.

– The school was well aware of the boy’s violent tendencies, and reportedly had him solo-escorted into school every day.

– The victim was bludgeoned in the head repeatedly with a Stanley tumbler.

– School administrators had been warned repeatedly about the boy’s violent tendencies, but appear to

The Times on the bullying of Hilary Cass:

Dr Hilary Cass has criticised the spread of “disinformation” around her report, including from a Labour MP, as she revealed she had been told not to travel on public transport over safety fears.

In an interview with The Times, the paediatrician behind last week’s landmark review on the treatment of transgender children said that young people were being put “at risk” by the spread of false information.

At risk of ruining their lives, at that.

Following publication of her 388-page report, figures including the Labour MP Dawn Butler repeated claims that Cass had not included 100 transgender studies in it. Calling the assertion “completely wrong”, Cass said that it was “unforgivable”

Dr Cass can’t take a bus any more.

The highly-regarded paediatrician who conducted the most thorough review ever undertaken on the medical evidence for transitioning gender-confused children has been advised not to travel on public transport for her own safety. 1/3https://t.co/tdtbkXyOAk

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 20, 2024

'Follow the money' may be a conspiracy theorist trope and I hate the X cliché 'let that sink in', but when a respected paediatrician is advised not to travel by bus, and when lobby groups fall over themselves to discredit a meticulous medical review, both might seem to apply. 3/X

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 20, 2024

… Read the rest

If nothing else, we get the satisfaction of knowing Trump had to listen to a bunch of people saying what a pile of ordure he is.

He seems “selfish and self-serving,” said one woman.

The way he carries himself in public “leaves something to be desired,” said another.

His “negative rhetoric and bias,” said another man, is what is “most harmful.”

Way too mild, but better than nothing.

It’s been a dramatic departure for the former president and presumptive 2024 GOP nominee, who is accustomed to spending his days in a cocoon of cheering crowds and constant adulation. Now a criminal defendant, Trump will instead spend the next several weeks subjected to strict rules that strip him of control

Trump got told to sit the fuck down yesterday. Got told it and had to take it.

New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan was wrapping up a contentious hour of debate with lawyers on both sides Friday afternoon, when he clarified that a contempt hearing—where he might punish Trump for repeatedly ignoring a gag order and continuing to publicly speak threateningly about witnesses and jurors—would commence Tuesday morning.

But just as the judge neared the end of his sentence, Trump abruptly stood up—apparently thinking the day was over. Immediately, Merchan turned his face to the former president and said in a firm voice: “Sir, can you please have a seat.”

His long, black robes dangled from beneath his

Utterly disgusting.

Shocking.

The CEO of the @fawcettsociety responding to @DarrenMillarMS and openly stating at the #Senedd that it's for political parties to determine what a woman is and that they would support men on electoral quota lists reserved for women.

How shameful.

A🧵
1/4 pic.twitter.com/8XPvsK4vrn

— Wales-Women’s Rights Network 💜🤍💚🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@WRNWales) April 20, 2024

“We’re not interested in defining what a woman is, the patriarchy’s been doing that for long enough.” SMIRK.… Read the rest

This is a farking outrage.

Biden hands over Title IX to trans people

The Biden administration has finalized new Title IX regulations that codify protections for transgender people, as well as enhance protections for victims of sexual assault or harassment and pregnant people.

What was Title IX? The federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs and activities.

The new regulations officially add “gender identity” onto the list of protections from sex-based discrimination for the first time, though the administration said it has already been applying this standard.

So that will be the end of protections for women.… Read the rest

What for?

NHS bosses have been accused of ‘woke pandering’ after they brought out a banner featuring flags for 21 genders or sexualities.  Different terms for those who consider themselves not belonging to any sex, or are a combination of both, are included on the banner at Royal Stoke Hospital. 

The familiar Gay Pride flag, which features a rainbow, appears on the banner alongside a selection of lesser-known identities – such as Polysexual, Demiromantic and Genderqueer. The collection of flags is titled ‘Everyone is welcome here’.  

Well duh. It’s the National Health Service, not a social club or a kindergarten or the House of Lords. Of course it lets everyone in; that’s its job. And if you are going to make … Read the rest

I saw a couple of hours ago that Daniel Dennett has left the stage, and I put off mentioning it because it displeases me.

Let’s turn our minds back to December 2006 and the day Judge Jones issued his ruling in the Kitzmiller case. It inspired me to fire off an email to Richard Dawkins inviting him to comment for publication here, which he immediately did, eloquently.

Judge John Jones has given the Founding Fathers the first really good reason to stop spinning in their graves since the Bush junta moved in. It would have been a scandal if any judge had not found against the ID charlatans, but I had expected that he would do so with equivocation: some

Victoria Smith on Scotland’s belated “pause”:

This is a tremendous relief and, to some of us, a surprise. As Dr Hilary Cass noted, evidence-based care for vulnerable children has been disrupted by those who prefer “a social justice model”. Being in favour of the sterilisation of autistic and gay children — or “protecting trans kids”, as it’s been known — has long been a way to advertise one’s right-side-of-history credentials. It has also, in the eyes of certain Scottish politicians, been a way to indicate that one’s own country is young, progressive, and forward-looking, rather than mired in stuffy old principles such as “child safeguarding”.

It’s worth pausing over that third sentence for an hour or two. All these … Read the rest

The BBC reported yesterday:

Scotland’s NHS has paused prescribing puberty blockers to children referred by its specialist gender clinic. The Sandyford clinic in Glasgow also said new patients aged 16 or 17 would no longer receive other hormone treatments until they were 18. It follows a landmark review of gender services for under-18s in England. Dr Hilary Cass’s review said children had been let down by a lack of research and there was “remarkably weak” evidence on medical interventions.

And very drastic “medical interventions” they are, too – and in fact they’re not really “medical” as commonly understood. More like anti-medical.

Like other parts of the UK, Scotland has seen a rapid rise in the number of young people

Labour has a new campaign ad.

Thinking about all the new homes we’ll build. pic.twitter.com/ME2TJGngFn

— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) April 19, 2024

Replies are scathing.… Read the rest

I find myself wondering why, when we’re told that the feeling of being trans is so real and overwhelming that it trumps the dull facts, it’s so urgent and imperative to change the body so that it matches the feeling.

Unless, of course, it turns out that this real and overwhelming feeling is solely about the appearance.

But then what becomes of the core claims about the self, the identity, the soul?

These thoughts arose as I was reading a rant by Ugla Stefanía Kristjönudóttir Jónsdóttir on the Cass Report evil terfs etc etc etc.

Waiting lists for trans-related healthcare in the UK are atrocious, with people in England waiting an average of seven years for a first appointment, despite

Simon Edge on why Ruth Hunt should not continue to be a peer:

[It’s a Twitter thread but I’m turning it into a short essay so as not to annoy.]

In May 2019 Ruth Hunt, who had just resigned as CEO of Stonewall, did a Q&A at the Oxford Union. Asked for tips on how to argue with people who didn’t agree with Stonewall on trans issues, she said: ‘Those who think transwomen are men? I wouldn’t even bother. Leave them to us.’

If that sounds faintly menacing, consider this: a few months later, the @AllianceLGB held its inaugural meeting, at a secret location. None of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people attending believed Hunt’s mantra that transwomen

So the question becomes how do you then find jurors who are mentally competent?

Jury selection resumed Thursday in a trial over allegations that Trump falsified business records to cover up a sex scandal during his 2016 campaign. Ultimately, 12 jurors will determine the verdict, with six alternates on standby.

Nearly 200 potential jurors have been brought in. All potential jurors will be asked whether they can serve and be fair and impartial. Those who have said “no” have been sent home.

Lawyers on both sides then comb through answers prospective jurors provide orally in court to a set of 42 questions that probe whether they have been part of various extremist groups, have attended pro- or anti-Trump rallies, or

Straight man Jeremy Corbyn tells lesbians and gay men they can’t have solidarity for and with lesbians and gay men unless they include straight people who pretend to be the opposite sex.

I don’t think that’s his call, myself.

There is no LGB without the T.

My speech at the Council of Europe. pic.twitter.com/LKckcbPgXT

— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) April 18, 2024

… Read the rest

Today in You Cannot Be Serious: one Lloyd Evans, who writes for The Spectator.

The setup: a historian named Lea Ypi gave a lecture at Darwin College, which Lloyd Evans attended but didn’t actually listen to, because he was too preoccupied with her hair. It got him all worked up, so he bought some sex, and then he wrote this piquant episode up for The Spectator.

Advice for scholars: next time you lecture on Kant and revolutions at “Downing” (@DarwinCollege) Cambridge, make sure your hair is neatly tied and that you’re not blonde. Or else your research impact will be on the @spectator libido section. pic.twitter.com/j9qbo0p2Ai

— Lea Ypi (@lea_ypi) April 18, 2024

It’s interesting for a lot … Read the rest

Grooming much?

Scottish primary schools are appointing children as “LGBT champions” and are being urged to ask pupils as young as four if they are gay, lesbian or trans, The Telegraph can reveal.

Documents show that schools are setting up LGBT clubs and “gender and sexual orientation alliance groups” for pupils as part of their membership of a scheme run by the charity LGBT Youth Scotland.

The charity, which received nearly £1 million of taxpayer’s money last year, also urges head teachers to install gender neutral toilets and mark Transgender Day of Remembrance, an event critics say is designed to reinforce myths spread by trans activists.

Wait, I have an idea. Here’s what you do: just change every child’s genitalia … Read the rest

More stupid stuff to round out the day:

Humza Yousaf has hit back at [retorted to] JK Rowling over her “ludicrous” outspoken attack on his plans to ensure biological men identifying as female are protected by a new misogyny law.

The Harry Potter author accused Mr Yousaf of displaying “absolute contempt for women” on Tuesday after he said transgender women would fall within the scope of the legislation.

…

He insisted that extending the law to transgender people did not diminish the protection being offered to women as he hit out at rebuked “bad faith actors” who are “intent on turning every issue into a culture war”.

Mr Yousaf also accused them of “deliberate disinformation” and argued it made